At these management conferences -- and even more so at Governing's Managing Technology conferences -- you always hear a lot about management systems like enterprise resource planning (ERPs). There's always a lot of talk about how a new streamlined system can revolutionize the way a city or state catalogs and uses its data.
But at a session yesterday, I heard someone put it an interesting way. Lynn Vellinga, the state accounting officer for Georgia, who has guided the state's implementation of a new ERP system, was talking about how it's not just the technology that can change things -- you've got to change the way your people are behaving.
Basically, if you don't change your business practices, you're still going to have exactly the same problems, regardless of your shiny new ERP.
Here's how Vellinga summarized it: "By switching technology but not changing the practices of your people, you can create a legacy system out of new technology."
Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach has written about a range of topics, including social policy issues and urban planning and design. Originally from Tennessee, he joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism
E-mail: zpatton@governing.com 
Written and compiled by staff writers and editors, GOVERNING View is an on-the-ground, and sometimes behind-the-scenes, look at the topics we're covering in print and online. From notes on what's up in statehouses, county courthouses and city halls, to encounters with people, places and things, GOVERNING View is a window into the side of state and local government you don't always see.
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